(Closed) What makes for a BAD real estate agent?

I’m finally house hunting! I though I had found the real estate agent I will work with, and have the first appointment to look at some houses. I also found two more houses I would like to see and emailed her about them. I haven’t heard back in over 36 hours. Is this a bad sign? Things move very quickly in the market I am buying in — often within a week, if they are in a good location with a good price. I haven’t signed a contract yet — should I run?? What made your real estate agent difficult to work with? Do you wish you had gone with someone else?

My realtor always responded within half an hour, whether I emailed her at 8am or 8pm. I would not be comfortable with a real estate agent who wasn’t promptly responding, for precisely the reason you mentioned — the markets move quick, and her slow responses could lose you your dream house.

Our real estate agent was awesome to work with. She was responsive and really listened to our needs and wants. We were looking for our home during a “slow” time (2011/2012), but she still responded quickly and always made time for us. DO NO settle on a mediocre agent. If you feel like you’re not getting good service, find someone new. Best of luck and happy house hunting 🙂

A real estate agent who doesn’t make themselves available for you is not a good agent. If you are not under contract, I would look at retaining someone who is more interested in helping you and answering your questions.

My Fiance is a real estate agent and I know for a fact 36 hours is too long for a response, unless they are on vacay. He always sets up an away message and changes his VM if we are out of town. For the record, he has had someone “fire” him for not calling back in 10min…seriously. I would probably take it as a sign and find someone else that will work for you.

On another note, not sure where you are finding the houses you want to look at but the MLS agents use is much MUCH more up to date than zillow or any of those websites. I know that he has had some clients find homes on those sites and then find out through MLS they are already under contract or sold. A good agent will be able to show you everything in your area that meets your requirements and weed out all of the bad stuff.

When I first e-mailed real estate agents, I actually picked mine by the one who e-mailed back the fastest and didn’t use text speach. (R U available Mon 2 look? Would have driven me crazy) Prompt communication is critical, espeically for your sanity.

I’m having trouble finding agents who are willing to get us last-minute appointments. A lot of the listings request 24-48 hours notice and my husband’s job schedule is often unpredictable. We don’t know our availability for the day until the morning of.

Our agents are simply unwilling and unable to talk/push/browbeat sellers into making appointments. It’s like nobody around here is actually serious about selling their home, and the agents don’t want our commission. Amateurs.

We are working with a phenomenal agent. She responds within 30 minutes. Timing is everything in real estate. I found her by accident by calling on a house on Zillow. She was so responsive, knowledgaeble and helpful, that I instantly felt like we were in capable hands and like she geniunely cares about meeting our needs. It only took one phone call and I knew that I had real estate agent struck gold…

The first agent I contacted had a douchey attitude, like he didn’t care or wasn’t super interested. So I never called him back.

The agent we used (well, currently using. We are under contract for a house right now, pending the home inspection!) was recommended to me by another agent my dad used but who now owns several offices and no longer does the agent type things, if that makes sense. She has been really great! She took her time to explain everything about the home buying process the first time we met her. After that initial meeting she set up a website that automatically sent us listings from the MLS that matched our criteria. That tool was really helpful! She always responded to my emails within 24 hours unless she was at a conference or something, but she would always respond to tell me she would look into the property as soon as she got back. She made sure to send me all of the listings that matched my criteria so we could personally weed out any we didn’t like. She never took it upon herself to pick and choose what we might like. However, when we went to look at the houses she would give us her honest opinion on the house. She was also very helpful with giving us an idea of what we should offer based on the information she knew.

I know that was a bit long and it stated the things I loved about our realtor, but I think you should know what qualities a good realtor should have.

CorvusCorax: A lot of sellers need 24 hours to set up their house for you to look at, so that isn’t really surprising. If people are living in the house, they will want to clean up, get the dog somewhere else, put the kids toys away, light some candles, make the bed and put away laundry. I work with two people who are currently selling their homes, and they get a lot of calls from their agent asking them to show that evening. It’s not always feasable for them to take off work and go home and clean at the drop of a dime. Please be mindful that you are buying from real people. 24 hour notice is pratical for most people. I would not let anyone but my close friends come over without 24 notices for me to clean, and most of the time that means that I will be closing a door or two so people can’t see where I left the mess. You can’t do that if you are selling your home. Buyers expect your home to be in 100% awesome shape every time they view. Real life shape of the empty used coffee mug on the counter doesn’t cut it.

But a good agent should be willing to work on your husband’s days off. We did a lot of our viewing on Sundays because I was working a lot of OT with mandatory Saturdays.

At the same time, an agent should still get back to you promptly. If they don’t respond to you with in a reasonable time frame, thats when to cut and run.

1) not intitiative, I done more homework than he/she does…maybe my budget was too little for him/her

2) know it all but don’t bother look into the details of each house/apartment.talk so big but even I can point out some defect of the houses/apartment to them and when I pointed them out, he/she will just talk it out like it’s not a big deal (but it is….)

3) as agent for my parents house, all she does was tell us to paint the house and told us to lower our price for a quick possession. while our house was in a prime location (right next to university), big lot and house market was heating up…

4) very opininated on house selection, always stick with the houses he like

5) god damn, even with GPS, he still get lost…and told us to go ahead to look at houses on my own, he will be there …when he found his way… each time he went on house hunt with us, he has to go with his wife otherwise, he will be lost… $()&*[email protected]

Misswhowedding: I’ve actually found that if someone really wants to sell they’ll really try to make it work (we’ve been to last minute appointments on 2 houses). The house we’re in the process of buying was a very last minute appointment. As in, we were looking at a house down the street when I remembered this particular house so my agent called the listing agent who then called the owner and the owner said we could come by. We were there within 10 minutes. Obviously most people want their house to be in the best condition but I think if a buyer asks to come by on such short notice they (the buyer) are aware that things might not be in perfect order and that won’t affect their decision. Unless the house was absolutely disgusting, but that would indicate a long term problem, not just a “oh, I haven’t done the laundry or washed a couple dishes today”.